The Scales Be Tippin' (S47: Episode 5)

A TRIBE SWAP!!!!! ....reward challenge (-_______-)

Jeffy P, you got my hopes up! I thought we were finally getting the tribe swap we've been itching for since Season 41! Still, nonetheless it gave us an interesting twist...let's dive in.

So here's the thing, I love the idea of a tribeswap pre-merge. It totally switches up the game! In the past, it has really opened up some of the gameplay, allowing players to jump-ship from their failing tribal alliances that they made day one OR it truly tests some of the seemingly tight tribal alliances when it comes to the sharing of information at the merge. I think it's fun AND I'm just a fan of larger tribal councils earlier on with more votes! That being said, I wasn't completely let down by this "twist." I guess I was just hoping that this would be more...permanent.

Sue, Kyle, Teeny, Sam, Rachel, Tiyana, and Caroline were the winners and got invited to the Survivor Sanctuary (where good things happen) for one (1) hot dog, with no (none/0) sides or sauces, one bottle of "Soda" (no brand, but love the art department's label! Maybe they couldn't get Coca Cola??) ...and cornhole! Cool!

Production really lucked out that there was at least one representative at the Sanctuary from each of the three tribes.

There were a bunch of different approaches in releasing information to these fellow reward-winners. Teeny shares that she is on the bottom because they took out Kishan. Sue wastes no time asking the hard-hitting question if Sam and Sierra are a power couple. But most shockingly, Tiyana aggressively starts to paint a target on Gabe, stating that he is always hunting for idols.

Maybe she was inspired by how Gabler messily threw out Ellie's name during the Mergatory feast in Season 43? Either way, Gabler's feat felt a little stronger/more thought out becuase they were in fact, merged. This was just a reward challenge where the majority of Tiyana's own tribe were there to hear her throw another Tuku under the bus! We'll see how this plays out...

The best part of the Immunity challenge was the arrival of a surprise guest! The chickens!!! Gata didn't want to kill the chickens for food, so they made a deal with Jeff to trade three chickens for 18 eggs...not bad! Except they lost this challenge, losing their flint, and now no fire to cook the eggs. LOL

Andy has been on the chopping block since day one over at Gata, and both Rachel and Anika want it to be an easy vote out, but Sierra and particularly, Sam have become fond of Andy and see him as a valuable asset moving forward in the game. Sierra would prefer to work with Sam and the girls, and Sam feels really strong about keeping Andy.

Ultimately, they pull of a wicked blindside on Anika... sorry for you. But shoutout to production for bringing back some sassy voting confessionals!!!!!! LOVED THAT!

But the biggest surprise of this tribal?!?! Sam not playing his idol, that has now expired after this tribal council!! What is he going to do with it? Andy still doesn't know about it!! Will he feel betrayed if/when he finds out? Did Sierra make the right move?? Will Rachel spill the beans to Andy? I have so many questions!!!! Only time will tell....

What made this episode an even cooler experience was that the tribemembers, alongside several other league members (Amy S., Anthony M., Jill, and Maggie), attended the live viewing of Rob Has a Podcast episode 5, the podcast filming, and the after-party in Tribeca, NYC, where Anika was also present. Seriously, I give her a lot of props—an LA girl getting the boot in front of a NY crowd, and she took it like a champ. She even dressed in black as she mourned her Survivor dream:

Speaking of a New York crowd, it's always interesting to see/hear which players get the most love from a live audience:

And some ~fun photos we got with some contestants past and present:

**Not pictured, Sue ended up dining at one of our favorite NYC spots, Zona, sitting a table away from us with her friends and family. She came over to our table, remembering us from the Survivor Beach Drop, and introduced us to her daughter, Chelsea! We're fuuuuulllly riding the 'Suenami.'

VUKELULU TRIBE!

Since the reward challenge was randomly selected, we saw a more mild week (compared to last) in terms of points. Genevieve was this week's highest-point earner thanks to her iconic "the scales be tippin'" line, although the Tribemasters agree a better title for this week's episode would have simply been: "fart." ~Sol.

Anika was this week's lowest-earner, in fact she scored negative points for her tribes due to the fact that she lost her vote at the Journey a few weeks back. Anika's boot also caused Maddie, Mason and Nona Nina to lose their Sole Survivor picks...sorry for you! Alyson Z., and Nonna Nina earned the least amount of points for their tribes (4 points each), and sadly join Rachael with only two contestants on their tribes. Thankfully, a merge is on the horizon!

That’s all we got for ya! Enjoy tonight!!!

~Your Tribemasters Liv & Brian